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Resource Booklet 1 Teaching the Holocaust with Primary Sources To The Teacher This booklet was created by Teaching with search box on the Library of Congress website Primary Sources at Eastern Illinois University (www.loc.gov). Please feel free to print and (www.eiu.edu/eiutps) as a companion to the share this publication with colleagues. Contact TPS EIU website. The booklet features us with questions, comments or ideas! information and images of digitized primary sources from the Library of Congress that you may use in your classroom. These images were selected for their relevance and as a means to engage students and encourage inquiry. Items can be found by typing the item’s title in the Why Teach with Primary Sources Primary Sources provide a window into the past-unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought and achievement during the specific period under study, produced by people who lived during that period. Bringing students into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects can give them a very real sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-past era. Primary sources engage students by helping them relate in a personal way to events of the past and promote a deeper understanding of history. Because primary sources are snippets of history, they encourage students to seek additional evidence through research. Primary sources develop critical thinking skills. Primary sources are often incomplete and have little context. Students must use prior knowledge and work with multiple primary sources to find patterns. In analyzing primary sources, students move from concrete observation and facts to questioning and making inferences about the material. Primary sources construct knowledge. Inquiry into primary sources encourages students to wrestle with contradictions and compare multiple sources that represent differing points of view. Integrating what they gleam from comparing primary sources with what they already know, and what they learn from research, allows students to construct content knowledge and deepen understanding. Harte Zeiten; harte Pflichten; harte Herzen Library of Congress, Teacher’s Page, Why Use Primary Sources, Accessed 8.29.12 http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/whyuse.html 2 Teaching the Holocaust with Primary Sources Selecting Primary Sources Interest What kinds of sources are of particular interest to my students? Reading Level How difficult is the reading level of the primary source compared to my students’ abilities? What might help my students comprehend this material (a glossary of terms, for example)? Length How long is the source? Do I need to excerpt a portion of the source given my students’ abilities and/or time constraints? How do I ensure that the original meaning of the source is preserved in the excerpt? Points of View Something to Consider: Are various points of view on a given topic, event, or issue Be sure that the use of primary fairly represented in the sources I have chosen to use? Have sources makes sense in the overall I achieved proper balance among the competing points of curriculum plan. Using too many view? primary sources or in the wrong places could cause them to lose Variety of Sources Have I included a variety of types of sources (e.g., published, impact. unpublished, text, visual, and artifacts)? Location Where can I or my students find the sources we need (the school or public library, the local history society, over the Internet)? Finding Primary Sources Looking for Library of Congress primary sources? Try these quick starting points. 1. Primary Source Sets: Each set collects primary sources on a specific topic, all as easy-to-use PDFs, with historical background information and teaching ideas. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/ 2. Primary Source by State: Selected primary sources for each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Territories. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/states/ 3. Themed Resources: The best Library of Congress resources on the most frequently taught themes. http://www.loc.gov/classroommaterials/themes/ 4. Browse by Topic: Easy browsing for primary sources across all the digital collections of the Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/topics 5. Web Guides: In depth guides to resources on a wide variety of topics. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/bibguide.html 6. Ask a Librarian: If you can’t find the primary source you need, consider sending a question to a Library of Congress reference librarian. http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib Library of Congress, Teacher’s Page, Finding Primary Sources, Accessed 8.29.30 http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/finding.html 3 Teaching the Holocaust with Primary Sources Using Primary Sources Before you Begin: • Choose at least two or three primary sources that support the learning objectives and are accessible to students. • Consider how students can compare these items to other primary and secondary sources. • Identify an analysis tool or guiding questions that students will use to analyze the primary source. 1. Engage students with primary sources. • What does the creator do to get his or her point across? • Draw on students’ prior knowledge of the • What was this primary source’s topic. audience? • Ask students to closely observe each • What biases or stereotypes do you see? primary source. • Ask if this source agrees with other • Who created this primary source? primary sources, or with what the • When was it created? students already know. • Where does your eye go first? • Ask students to test their assumptions • Help students identify key details. about the past. • What do you see that you didn’t expect? • Ask students to find other primary or • What powerful words and ideas are secondary sources that offer support or expressed? contradiction. • Encourage students to think about their personal response to the source. 3. Assess how students apply critical thinking • What feelings and thoughts does the and analysis skills to primary sources. primary source trigger in you? • Have students summarize what they’ve • What questions does it raise? learned. 2. Promote student inquiry. • Ask for reasons and specific evidence to support their conclusions. • Encourage students to speculate about • Help students identify questions for each source, it creator, and its context. further investigation and develop • What was happening during this time strategies for how they might answer period? them. • What was the creator’s purpose in making this primary source? Library of Congress can provide helpful Reichssporttag des B.D.M entry points to many topics. 23 September 1934 4 Teaching the Holocaust with Primary Sources Introduction On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, by March 1933 he would become dictator.1 How did Hitler and the Nazi party come to power and set a path of destruction? After World War I, Germany was in economic ruin. Unemployment was high, the majority of people were poor, the country was in a downward spiral and Germany’s citizens wanted change. Hitler and the Nazi party capitalized on the power of persuasion and were masters at propaganda. Hitler told the German people what they needed to hear, that he could end their suffering and restore Germany’s pride. Nazi flag on the A scapegoat was needed for Germany’s problems and Hitler blamed the Jewish aircraft carrier community. Through Nazi propaganda, Jews were portrayed as an alien race that was Graf Zeppelin poisoning German culture and bringing economic downfall and war to Germany. The Nazis flooded the country with anti-sematic speeches and posters and hatred towards the Jews grew. There was violence against Jewish citizens in the streets, Nazi soldiers blocked entrances and broadsides were posted warning German citizens not to purchase items or services from Jewish businesses. Jewish families were no longer safe in their own neighborhoods and homes. Nuremberg Race Laws At the Nazi party rally of 1935, Hitler signed the Nuremberg Race Laws. The laws come under two different headings, “The Protection of German Blood and German Honor” and “The Reich Citizenship Laws.”3 The first section was used to determine exactly who was identified as a Jew. Under the law, a person was considered a Jew even if they did not practice the Jewish faith. A “full-Jew” was defined as an individual with three or more Jewish grandparents.3 A “half-Jew” or “mischling”, was an individual with two Jewish grandparents.3 A person with one 3 Heinrich Himmler, Jewish grandparent was a “quarter-Jew” or “mischling of the second degree”. Adolf Hitler, and Charts were handed out explaining the laws. Viktor Lutze. Nuremburg, The second section was the Reich Citizenship Laws, which stripped away German walking between 4 citizenship from all Jews. They were not allowed to vote or hold public office. It rows of many prohibited them from marrying a person of German blood. Jews were required to soldiers on Nazi register their businesses with the German government, then Nazis would release party day. the proprietors with no compensation. The businesses were then sold to non-Jewish Germans at a bargain price. During the first six years of the Nazi regime, there were over 400 legal restrictions imposed upon Jews and other persecuted groups.5 Kristallnacht Hershel Grynszpan was a 17-year old student living in Paris.2 He knew of the atrocities against Jews in Germany, when his Jewish parents were deported from Germany to Poland he took drastic measures. In an effort to draw the world’s attention to what was happening to the Jews in Germany, Grynszpan shot and killed Berlin Jewish shop Ernst von Rath, the Third Secretary of the German Embassy in owners and 2 wreckage. Paris. 5 Teaching the Holocaust with Primary Sources After hearing the news of von Rath’s death, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered a speech urging Germans to take action.
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